Music-Themed Playground Honors Ruthann Lodato

This morning my family and I attended the dedication ceremony for a new playground at the city's Lee Rec Center, the Ruthann Lodato Memorial Playground. Ruthann was a popular local music teacher who was murdered in February 2014. She taught the Music Together classes that Jon Morgan and I attended when he was little. He was the child who insisted on getting up and walking around and around the perimeter of the circle as the other kids and moms were sitting on the floor. Ruthann never minded.

The mayor and city council were on hand, as well as Sheriff Dana Lawhorne (he's playing the xylophone in some of the photos below), Ruthann's husband and family, many of her former students, and a good sized crowd of city residents. A Channel 9 News reporter was covering the event and interviewed me and Jon Morgan about Ruthann and the playground, so we may be on tonight's news.

The cheerful, creative new playground has a music theme, with a large piano painted on the pavement, and working xylophones and similar percussion instruments for the kids to play, and an easel for drawing. There are swings and other standard playground equipment as well. The playground is accessible by children with disabilities, and is adjacent to a newly refurbished basketball court.

What a fitting way to celebrate the life of a woman who loved to get children singing, moving, making music, and having fun!

Mayor Bill Euille

The mayor unveils the dedication plaque, with help from Ruthann's husband.

Catherine M. Petrini

Who Am I?

I am a published author of 28 books for children and young adults, a former magazine editor, and mom to an 8th-grader. My published works include 20 books for Sweet Valley High and other teen fiction series, all written under pseudonyms. My nonfiction kids' books, written under my own name, are on topics ranging from Dragons to Stonehenge to the Cherokee Indians. In my spare time, I enjoy reading, drawing, photography, traveling, overthrowing the governments of small countries, befriending dragons, slaying demons, and ruining my son's life by making him do his homework.